Jacob Obrecht (1450-1505)
Missa De Sancto Donatiano

Cappella Pratensis

Composée par Jacob Obrecht et commissionnée par Adriane de Vos, veuve d’un riche marchand hollandais, la Missa De Sancto Donatiano est célébrée pour la première fois à l’église Saint Jacob de Bruges en 1487. Natif de Gand, Obrecht est alors reconnu comme l’un des plus importants compositeurs de messes de la fin du XVème siècle avec Josquin Des Prés. Grand voyageur, également renommé pour ses nombreux motets et chansons, sa vie le mène de sa hollande natale en Italie. Très tôt, son talent et son influence sont remarqués par Johannes Tinctoris, l’un des grands théoricien de la musique de l’époque, qui classe le jeune compositeur parmi les grands maîtres de la composition alors que celui-ci a à peine vingt ans. D’une grande beauté, cet enregistrement live s’accompagne de la captation vidéo du concert enrichi d’un documentaire très fouillé dans lequel interviennent le professeur Jennifer Bloxam du Williams College, et Stratton Bull, directeur artistique de l’ensemble Capella Pratensis.

An evocation of a commemorative mass composed by Jacob Obrecht and commisioned by Adriane de Vos - in memory of her late husband, the fur merchant Donaes de Moor - and first sung in the Sint Jacobskerk in Bruges in October 1487, opening a window onto the world of late-medieval Bruges. Jacob Obrecht(1457/8-1505) was a South Netherlandish composer known mainly for his substantial output of Mass Ordinary settings in the late 15th century, as well as for his Motets and songs. Like his close contemporary Josquin des Prez, Obrecht was born and trained in the North, and led a peripatetic career involving positions and patrons both north and south of the Alps. Even as a young man in his twenties his talent and influence were celebrated: in the early 1480s the leading music theorist of the time, Johannes Tinctoris, ranked Obrecht among the masters “whose compositions, distributed throughout the whole world, fill God’s churches, the palaces of kings, and the houses of private individuals, with the utmost sweetness.” The dvd contains a filmed reenactment of the mass plus an extensive documentary featuring Prof. Jennifer Bloxam (Professor of Music Williams College, Massachusetts USA) and Stratton Bull (Artistic leader Cappella Pratensis) made on-location in Bruges. For more information: go to the very special website of the Saint Donation Mass. This website features an audiovisual recreation of that liturgical service complete with plainsong and Obrecht's polyphony sung by the Cappella Pratensis and linked to an annotated copy of the score. Essays and images illuminate the rich social, cultural, and theological context of this unusually well-documented occasion.